Nvidia’s GPU Technology Conference (GTC) 2020 isn’t planning on joining the list of tech conferences outright cancelled out of concern for the coronavirus. However, due to public health concerns, it’s now going to be an online only event.
VideoCardz.com has reported that while GTC 2020 itself isn’t technically cancelled, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s opening keynote will now be an online-only event. Speakers of the event are also now being asked to publish their talks online.
According to the GTC website, Nvidia made the decision to turn it into a digital conference because “the coronavirus situation is not improving," per a statement.
"Jensen will still give a keynote. We will still share our announcements. And we’ll work to ensure our speakers can share their talks. But we’ll do this all online. We will provide updates here soon about when you can tune in.”
What’s more is that attendees who bought the GTC pass need not worry about getting their money back. Nvidia says that it will be in touch with every pass holder to give them a full refund.
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Tech world in coronavirus crisis
The tech world has been taking quite a beating due to the deadly novel coronavirus.
Major conferences like the MWC 2020 in Barcelona and the Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2020 in San Francisco have been cancelled. Factories in China have been shut down, causing a halt in production and decline in supply. The demand for PCs and devices has reportedly started to drop. And, even Apple Stores in China are temporarily closed.
This isn’t a surprise, considering the fact that COVID-19 has now infected more than 89,000 people and killed over 3,000 worldwide since December 30, with the US announcing its first two coronavirus casualties in the last few days. In addition, four cases of community transmission have now been reported.
However, some are still hanging in there. Besides GTC 2020, Microsoft is also planning to host a “digital-only event" from March 16-18, so it’s still set to make the announcements it planned to make at the now-postponed GDC 2020.
Some shows are still going forward: while big names like Sony and PUBG Corp pulled out, PAX East still took place as scheduled last weekend with “enhanced cleaning and sanitization across the show.”
